THE. NEøW YORKER four times during the hour be- tween 8 and 9 A.M. on Mon- day, Tuesday, and Wednes- day to give Conventioneers "the ease of having breakfast in your hotel room while visu- ally shopping." When not at the Garden or the Americana, Carter staff people have alread y started hanging oUt at Peter Asch- kenasy's new United States Steakhouse, where La Fonda del Sol used to be, on the ground floor of the Time & Life Building, which just hap- pens to be the only resta uran t in the Northeast to offer pea- nut soup, hot and cold. Of the five four-star restaurants listed in John Canaday's 1 976 edi- tion of "The N ew York Times Guide to Dining Out in New York," one, Christ Cella, plans to open specially on three Saturdays in July, on the assumption that many vis- itors will be around both be- fore and after the Conven- tion; one, Parioli Romanissimo, is on va- cation until August 10th; one, Max- well's Plum, is devoting most of its free energy to renovating the Tavern-on- the-Green, which the Plum wiI] reopen in early August; and two, La Caravelle and Le Cygne, have no special plans. Near the Garden, Edward Share, of Lou G. Siegel, 209 West Thirty-eighth, a fifty-one-year-old Garment Center hangout that cures all its own corned beef, says, "AI] our dishes are always specia1." He has put some bunting up. Al Cooper, of Al Cooper's Restaurant, 130 \Vest Thirty-sixth, a favorite for many yeals with Garment Center and Wall Street higher-ups, will keep his kitchen open an extra two hours each Convention night, until midnight, and will open on the Saturday and Sunday before and after the Convention, and says he's eager for Democrats. And Joe Berger, the manager of Paddy's Clam House, that friendly, noisy old place on Thirty-fourth just north of the Garden, has put up flags, streamers, bunting, and balloons, although they all convey al- 111oc;t a rustic flavor, to his way of thinking; he may have a live donkey out front, if certain negotiations work out. Gloria McGill's husband, Arthur- he'll be remembered as the co-owner of Chateau Stables-also co-owns Cha- teau Theatrical Animals. He reports "a million" calls for donkeys from restau- rants (specifically, The Cattleman and the Steer Palace), from bars, and for TV commercials. The McGills keep .., v^ - 29 ---- "And now the news at eleven. To begin with, everytlzing I said on the six-o'clock news was wrong." . two donkeys-Randy and Doodles-in town year-round and have four others on call at a farm near the city in antici- pation of the demand. A hundred and fifty dollars a day, including handler, insurance, and transportation. The Dawn Animal Agency, 1545 Broad- way, on the other hand, has received only one request for a donkey so far, and has worked out an explanation for the slack demand: "Democrats don't usually use donkeys the way Republi- cans use elephants, because donkeys are a less interesting animal and people are less likely to be drawn to a political rally by the idea that they might see a donkey." And, oh, yes: the American Ballet Theatre has set two hundred and forty tickets aside for Conventioneers; all the theatres are putting aside a hundred seats each for five nights running, but every delegation's first choice is "A Chorus Line; " the Statler Hilton Men's Shop, across Seventh Avenue from the Garden, has put down a new parquet floor; the Jean Wearhouse (various spots around town) has four T h o " new -s Irts, CARTER FOR PRESI- DENT 1976," "FORD FOR PRESIDENT 1976," "REAGAN FOR PRESIDENT 1976," and" ? FOR PRESIDENT 1976;" Aaron Block, who sells handmade jewelry on the SIdewalks-he normally works Fifty-third and SIxth weekdays, West Eighth Street Saturdays, and the MetropolItan Museum Sundays-plans to grab a spot near the Garden ("My prices never change. They range up to . thirty-five dollars Don't try to haggle with me"); all museums will be open normal hours; the Café Carlyle is ex- tending Bobby Short's engagement through Convention Week; the Rain- bow Grill is presenting, for ten days only, political satirist Mark Russell; Alex Parker's 1 Times Square has a fourteen-story-high sign that says "vVELCOME BIG D;" the Stage Deli will give any delegate a free salami ( this was arranged by Maggie Cadoux, one of the Carter people); specIal at- ten tion will be paid to the Con ven tIon by Cue, The Real World, and Andy \Varhol's Interview ("Jerry Brown will be on the cover," says an Inter- view editor "Andy tape-recorded one of his speeches and we'll run that ver- batim. Evervthing else in the issue is sort of right-wing, one way or another. V\' e have a piece about SpIro Agnew and his novel; another about the grand-nIece of Mussolin] who's a pho- tographer and a leftist. 'Ve just thought we should do something about the Convention. This is it"); the Sani- tation Department has been authorized to put sixty men on overtime on Sun- days, at approximately a hundred and fifteen dollars per man per shift; the city expects twenty-five thousand peo- ple to come to town and hopes they'll spend twenty-five million; Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter will be throwing a picnic for five thousand people Sunday, July 11 th, on Pier 88, at Forty-eIghth and the Hudson River-fried chicken and beer.